In the Blink of an Eye
by TheQuietAwakening
Summary: In the blink of an eye, a curse hits its mark. In the blink of an eye, tragedy strikes. In the blink of an eye, life can change forever. - Written for QLFC Round 10


**Theme: Kill Them or Save Them**

**This round, the teams were given a list of characters to either kill or save, opposite to what happened to them in canon. Each character was only allowed to be written once among the team members, so our captain assigned us all one of the characters to write. It was quite a challenge! I was assigned to save Colin Creevey.**

**Position: Chaser 1**

**Team: Wasps**

**Optional Prompts: (dialogue) "Being reasonable is boring.", (quote) "Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful." – Mary Shelley, (word) impact.**

* * *

It happened so fast; in the blink of an eye, in a bright flash of green, Colin helplessly watched as the curse impacted his brother's small body. And in that moment, all he could feel was the shattering of his heart, the crumbling of his very soul. The world seemed to stop moving, the battle which continued to wage around him fell into a distant background, insignificant when compared with the fiery agony of loss that was overwhelming him.

"Dennis!"

The name left his lips in a choked, grief-stricken shriek as Colin dove to his brother's side.

"No, no, no. Dennis! Wake up!" he sobbed over the small boy's limp form, shaking his shoulders in a vain attempt to bring him back. It wasn't right. This wasn't how things were supposed to be! But it was all too real, too terribly real.

Colin collapsed over his brother's body, clinging to him, holding him as tightly as he could against his chest. How could he go on without seeing Dennis' cheery smile, without hearing his squeaky little laugh when he found something unbearably funny, without sharing in his untameable excitement? How could Colin live without his best friend?

He held on with all of his strength, crying into his brother's shirt. The hurt was too much, like acid had burned a hole through his stomach.

Though his friends were yelling that they had to get out of there, they had to leave, Colin blocked them out, their words fading into the distance. He couldn't leave Dennis. He wouldn't. So he held on.

It was all his fault. Colin knew that if it wasn't for him, his brother would still be alive. _He _had come to fight when the D.A. had been called. _He _had chosen to sneak back into battle when McGonagall had sent him away. But what he hadn't known was that Dennis had followed him. Why did he have to follow him? Why did Dennis have to be there too?

And Colin had yelled at him for being unreasonable. Colin himself was being unreasonable, following his own hero into a full out war, but when he had seen his brother there, fear had shaken him to his very core. Somehow, he knew that something truly awful would happen.

It had.

Oh, how he wished he could take it all back! Colin could have been back at the campsite, safe with his parents and happy with his brother. But he couldn't have just sat there and let this battle go on without him, he _had _to answer that call. Colin hadn't considered that Dennis might go too, that his brother was just as eager and impulsive as he was.

The last words Dennis had said to him repeated over and over again in his mind: "Being reasonable is boring."

Colin should have known. He should have known. He should have been more careful. He shouldn't have let this happen.

_"Being reasonable is boring."_

It was something Colin used to say all the time to his parents when he got overly excited and did something inappropriate. They would scold him for his inability to be sensible about things. And Dennis had thrown the words back at him. They were too similar.

He should have known.

It was his fault.

It was his fault.

It was his fault.

And there was nothing he could do about it now. That fact sent waves of anguish flooding through him.

It should have been him. Colin wished it could have been him lying there, lifeless on the ground. Dennis shouldn't have had to face the consequences of this bad decision.

Colin didn't notice when the battle suddenly stopped, or when an eerie silence fell over everything. But soon, he felt a hand on his shoulder, heard distant words of condolence and voices telling him it was time to go. But he couldn't, he just couldn't.

"We have to go. Let us help you." It was Neville's voice as he knelt beside Colin, gently beginning to pull him away.

"You can't help me!" Colin cried, but slowly, he allowed himself to be pulled free of Dennis' body.

The rest of the night was a blur of emptiness, a hollowness that seemed to swallow him whole.

People kept saying that Dennis was a brave kid, and he was. But that bravery was too much for him to handle. Colin learned that night that fear could be a good thing, a necessary thing. Fear kept you alive.

Dennis was fearless. He always had been. And he had been killed because of that fearlessness.

It wasn't until later that Colin realised the power of that trait.

After everything was over, after the battle had been won, Colin continued to sit beside his brother in a daze.

It was then that Harry Potter's words managed to break through the fog. He told him that it was his fearlessness that made Dennis the boy he was, his light and life so contagious. It made him powerful.

Those words stuck with him.

* * *

"Colin, honey. It's time." His mother moved to stand beside him in front of the large mirror. Her eyes were red and puffy, and somehow, she seemed smaller, frailer than usual. The woman's fingers trembled as she reached out to fix Colin's tie.

Colin just stared at his own reflection. It wasn't right that he was standing there in the nicest suit his parents could afford, preparing to go to his brother's funeral. It wasn't right that Dennis was gone. It wasn't right that Colin was left to live life without him.

His eyes began to burn, a tear threatening to escape. He quickly wiped it away with the back of his hand before it had the chance to fall and took a deep breath, hoping to prevent the flow that he knew would be unstoppable later.

The moment that curse had hit his brother, Colin felt the impact as though it had been him the curse had taken. It had killed a part of himself he had never before considered he might one day have to live without. That night had impacted his life in a way Colin hadn't known was possible. And he was lost. He hadn't been able to even look at his camera, couldn't bear the thought of sorting through the pictures he had yet to put in his album. Colin had hidden the device in the corner of his closet, too terrified that seeing a picture of Dennis might break him.

"Come on," his mother said in a voice so soft it was almost a whisper, as though the words were stolen from her lips. Gently, she took his hand and lead him from the room.

The drive to the cemetery was agonising, somehow too short and too long at the same time. He didn't want to arrive, to have to see the coffin lowered into the ground, forced to stand there and try in vain to be strong. But he also couldn't stand the eerie silence that had spread throughout the car on the solemn journey. Colin hated how silence gave him no choice but to think, and right now, he didn't like where his mind was going. All the things he should have done differently ate away at him, plaguing him with a guilt he couldn't handle. As many times as his parents told him it wasn't his fault, Colin knew it was.

When the journey was finally over, and they left the parked car behind, Colin felt the overwhelming pain bubbling up once again. It wasn't as though it ever left, but sometimes he managed to block it out, to pretend things were different—how they should have been.

The service was far too somber; there was something empty about it. Dennis would have wanted more light, more laughter, more life. But all Colin could do was stare at the coffin that held his brother's body. Soon, he would be laid to rest beside his grandparents who had died a few years prior. Dennis seemed out of place there, far too young.

But even in death, Dennis was an outlier. He had always been his own person, had been able to make people really see him just by being himself. And now, a boy too young to be in any cemetery, he showed the world who he truly was. He was brave. He was fearless. He jumped headfirst into battle without a second thought. Some might say he was reckless, but really, he was powerful. And he would continue to be powerful, touching the lives of everyone who came to that place, of everyone who heard his story.

For the first time during the service, Colin allowed himself to read the plaque that would mark his brother's place. That simple glance broke through the barrier he had worked so hard to maintain, tears flooding uncontrollably down his cheeks.

"Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful."

* * *

**A huge thanks to my teammates who beta'd my story, DaughteroftheOneTrueKing, savedprincess85, and Queen Bookworm the First**


End file.
